The group’s new customer-focused, three-year strategy, involving the launch of a social betting feature and same-day race multi-product, aims at leveraging their digital, retail and media assets.
The wagering group will pay a fully franked dividend of 6.5 cents a share, down from 7 cents in the prior corresponding period, taking the total financial year dividend to 13 cents.
In 2021, Tabcorp’s wagering division suffered a 10 per cent decline in revenue ($1.07 billion) and a 67 per cent fall in earnings to $43 million, despite the then $12 billion group recording record revenue for the six months to December 2021 jumping 11 per cent to $1.7 billion and earnings up 15 per cent to $3.05 billion.
The Lottery Corporation boasted 8.3 million customers in 2022, about 43 per cent of the Australian adult population, and reported a net profit of $373 million, excluding significant items and translating to close to a 15 per cent increase on 2021.
On Wednesday, the group’s chief executive, Sue van der Merwe, said the newly formed company had largely benefited from the COVID-19 lockdowns, which caused more people to seek out the group’s lottery offerings. The company had experienced only minor disruptions due to the closure of Keno venues during the Delta lockdowns.
“We focus on what we can control,” says The Lottery Corporation chief executive Sue van der Merwe.Credit:Madeline Begley
Van der Merwe said most of the group’s game portfolio grew between 5 per cent and 10 per cent on the year prior, highlighting record powerball sales after increasing the $100 million prize to $120 million.
“We focus on what we can control,” van der Merwe told analysts on Wednesday, “we control the portfolio development, sequence management, our marketing distribution strategy,” citing the 2018 change to Powerball to produce more winners and more jackpots of $100 million or more as a decision that continues to deliver benefits four years on.
The lottery giant’s reported revenue grew to $3279 million, up 11.1 per cent on 2021. Reported earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation before significant items grew by nearly 17 per cent to $610 million. The significant items grew by more than 135 per cent to $26 million due to the demerger and jumbo sale of shares.
The Lottery Corporation is expected to be one of the 50 largest companies on the ASX, worth more than $10 billion. Freed from the wagering business, analysts expect it to trade at 16 to 20 times earnings, compared with Tabcorp’s 12 times, while investors should be attracted to the reliable “infrastructure-like” earnings that have been resilient even through the pandemic.
The Lottery Corporation will not pay a final dividend this year as set out in the demerger.
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